To ask people to please stop contributing to the overbreeding of dogs in lockdown?

[Iremembertheelderlykoreanlady]

I've posted this in "doghouse" too but maybe it will be of benefit to put it on here too.

I looked on gumtree. I shouldnt have but i did and now I'm pissed off!

I mean what the hell is this?! £2500 for a mix of random breeds, so blatantly an attempt to cash in on lockdown by breeding family dogs. No care will have been taken over health testing etc

Its not just this advert either.

FRUGS! I mean, never mind that it's a stupid f-ing name, but it's pug crossed with a French bulldog. Wonderful idea! Let's take 2 breeds who can't breath and make shit loads of money from them.

SHUGS! I'm guessing here as the advert wasn't specific but I'm assuming a shitzu crossed with a pug?

DACHOUND - If you're going to sell it you should be able to spell it!

More cockerpoos thank you can shake a stick at.

Puppies around 4 months old being sold for £2000 (obviously a lockdown purchase and they're trying to get their money back/make a bit more)

Even normal breeds which would have been fairly cheap pre lockdown (labrador, border collie etc) going for thousands of pounds.

What is wrong with people?! And when will this end?

Please please don't be someone who adds to this problem. Its not just gumtree, even some supposedly "reputable" breeders are now charging double or triple the price for puppies than they were before lockdown.

If people keep buying at this price it will encourage more and more irresponsible breeders who are just looking to make money.

Dog theft is a real problem (in my area) at the moment and it all stems from the same thing.

Once "work from home if you can" finishes so so many young dogs will be chucked into rescue centres or just onto the side of a road.

And who the hell are the 8% that have voted you unreasonable? The same muppets responsible for this crisis no doubt.

I’m on a breed group on fb, and the number of new members looking for pups recently has skyrocketed
Well again, because done people held off having a dog because of work and now have been told their job is WFH permanently.

Should they be punished for not impulse buying at a time when they couldn't be there for the dog just because sadly, some people just want a dog for the sole purpose of entertaining their kids, which is nothing new. Even then, it doesn't mean the dog will be poorly treated.

There is a hysterical woman in my local area who chases my brothers van and takes photos of it and put them on local Facebook boards because she saw him petting someone else’s dog outside a shop. He works for the water board and it very clearly shows it on his van. She is sparking mass hysteria and a witch-hunt. My brother is one of these over friendly type who talks to old people and pets animals. He will be really upset if it gets back to him. I do think a lot of these posts are lockdown boredom

@Lastbonestanding

I have never once thought anybody would steal my dog. I would never leave him unattended outside a shop or tied to a lamppost whilst I go in somewhere. That's more because I worry kids could bother him and I wouldn't be there to stop them. I find it strange that people are actually walking their dogs terrified that somebody might grab their dog from them.

We're in a 'naice' part of Manchester and people have been held at knife point for purebreeds. It's insane

Humans have always and will always exploit those weaker and less powerful than themselves, which is why we need laws to protect the vulnerable. UK laws about dog breeding and ownership (and horse breeding and ownership) are pretty much non existent. My favoured dog rescue has been campaigning for ages for strict rules about dog breeding to prevent puppy farms, but they get very little traction. There are also dogs being bred in eastern bloc countries (lots with chopped off ears as this is now fashionable again within a certain group) being illegally and legally imported. I would suggest everyone writes to their mp to try and pressure the govt to change the law otherwise nothing will change, and the weak will continue to be exploited.

And you can only hope, if your dog is stolen, that it is stolen to be sold on. Many small dogs are stolen as bait dogs - it's my biggest worry for my two little mongrels.

The price of crossbreed kittens is concerning too. A black and white moggie that someone linked on Facebook sold for £550!

People won’t stop breeding until puppy buyers stop buying from BYB and commercial breeders.
But people are selfish. They want the cute puppy NOW. They don’t want to plan and wait. They CBA to teach down the decent breeders.

Agreed, it is sickening to see dogs that will suffer. I think that anyone breeding dogs should by law have to pay for an expensive annual licence, which pays for inspections to ensure outfits are not puppy farms.

My sisters £2500 lockdown cockapoo has a whole range of issues, from health to behaviour which the vet thinks is hereditary. She's spent a fortune in vets and behaviourists trying to sort him out, to no avail. These 'breeders' don't give a shiny shit. But then again, my sis did no research and was happy to buy a pup that had been born and raised in an outhouse with no human interaction, and only let out to see sunlight for an hour a day.

Round my way it's become the latest 'must have' accessory.

I've bought a puppy in lockdown but she was a year in the planning and a specialist breed registered with the American Kennel club. There's only around 150 in the UK in total and the breeders plans didn't change with demand, they have 1 litter a year (have multiple adult dogs) maximum and have sold for the same price as previous years except for any increase in costs. All their breeding animals have had genetic testing just in case and when it was realised one of the dogs had a health issue she was spayed, she couldn't pass it on but pregnancy could affect her health condition. This is the first dog I've ever bought from a breeder (had the puppy of a family pet and a regimes one before) and I was very careful about selecting the right one as were they about selecting the right owner.

I completely agree with your OP, I think so many people decide they're going to get one so look for someone who has puppies ready to go without any thought about the background. I understand it's easy to get caught up in it but you wouldn't buy a used car without checking out its history so why do it with an animal that you've not know since birth. Puppy farms are well documented and appear in the media all the time yet you still hear these stories of people meeting in lay-bys to exchange.

I also really hate these random mix breeds with posh names as though I'm supposed to know what they are. My puppy was a mixed breed technically until the 90's when the breeders (in the US) could prove they'd created a distinctive breed with a breed standard including size, stature, colouring and temperament, then they could claim Kennel club entry and pure breed status. Some people seem to think it's as simple as breeding 2 pure breeds together means you have another breed, cockapoos are still not allowed in the Kennel club because they haven't reached a recognisable breed standard.

This is besides all the doggy or at home breeders who breed completely unsuitable dogs to start with who then go onto have poor offspring themselves. Just because you think your dog is perfect doesn't mean they should be having puppies. I know of someone who wants to breed their male working collie because she would love more of him, this is despite a funny tummy, poor coat, terrible teeth for his age and elbows that are prone to injury. Some of it is related to breed (funny tummy) but other traits are probably inherited due to poor breeding and she now wants to breed him. People need to take the emotion out of breeding and consider if they are producing the healthiest, safest and good tempered puppies they can.

I agree, the increase in dog related crimes and the madness of anybody and everybody breeding is a real issue. I say that as somebody who got a dog just before the second Lockdown. I worry about walking her when it's getting dark and I worry about DH being out with her in the evenings. We thought that we were being sensible, we always wanted a dog and waited years until we had a house with a decent garden (moved during the first Lockdown), waited until the first Lockdown was ending to put our name down for a puppy as we thought that would be it and we'd be able to do puppy classes/socialise lots and not have to worry about the increasing dog crime caused by Lockdown puppies (oh how naive!) and then ended up in two more Lockdowns.

even some supposedly "reputable" breeders are now charging double or triple the price for puppies than they were before lockdown.

Many breeders are not breeding at the moment. If they had litters they were raising their prices because people were buying them and selling them on for a profit. No breeder likes not to know where their pups go.

And yes, dog thefts rond here are going through the roof. Lots of people taking ridiculous precautions because it sometimes feels utterly unsafe

@Newgirls

The ethics and of it all horrifies me. How many puppies is one dog meant to produce? Even with the most reputable breeder?

It’s basically humans wanting animals for their own desires - not great for the planet and not great for many of the dogs

I've only got one child and a small dog. I know which will contribute more to environmental harm and it's not the canine!

Agree with absolutely everything the OP said. Our area has become flooded with Cockerpoos, Cavapoos, Cavapoochons, Shitzpoos (I mean, really) and all these fashionable “teddy bears”. My friend works at a local vet and the number of people who can’t care for their coats is off the chart - clear indication no research was done. Most have no manners and are dressed up in stupid outfits. They are not treated like dogs, it’s like people think they are cuddly toys that move on their own. Fine when it’s a tiny puppy but then you end up with a problem that will probably be abandoned when everyone goes back to work 😞 I wonder, will cockerpoos in rescues outnumber poor staffies one day? Time will tell.

Dogs def are not great for planet - all that plastic wrapped food, plastic toys, kit that people buy etc

But yes humans are not great either!

People who believe that the prices have gone up to deter people from buying are naive. prices have gone up because people are greedy, and because there are idiots who are willing to pay those kinds of prices. Even for a pure bred doubling the price is greedy and grabby, and paying twice the price is contributing to the industry.

And for people saying “we’ve wanted a puppy for a while now,” think about it like this. If you went to pick up your puppy and realised it was a puppy farm would you walk away? Because if you would then you should equally walk away if the price of said puppy has doubled in the time since you started looking at puppies until the time you get one. Because it amounts to the same thing. You are complicit in a trade which exploits animals for money. Doesn’t matter if you were planning to give it a good home, for every person who pays £2.5k for a puppy that breeder has an incentive to breed more.

Slightly different but a couple of years ago I walked into a pet shop and they had a rabbit there on display with a notice which read: “if you buy one of our recommended cages you will get this rabbit for free.” My DS who was much younger then begged us to buy the cage so he could have the rabbit, otherwise no-one might buy it. I pointed out to him that if we took that rabbit today they would replace it with another one tomorrow and so on, so us buying that rabbit was encouraging the practice.

We walked out and I have never been to that pet shop since, not even for dog treats.

People who believe that the prices have gone up to deter people from buying are naive. Nobody said that! What was said is that breeders are matching the raised prices so they are the ones that get the profit, not some ubscrupulous person who would sell on for profit not caring where the dogs ended up!

I have no time for dog breeders, 'reputable' or not. The KC registered breeders are solely responsible for king Charles with skills too small for their brains so their eyes bulge out of their heads, hip displaysia in lots of bigger breeds, that horrible sloping back in German shepherds which causes health problems, breathing problems in the short snouted breeds. The KC is a fucking disgrace and I would no more get a dog from a registered breeder than I would from a puppy farm.

Skulls! Bloody autocorrect.

I find it a bit astounding that people suggest that puppy prices should be capped at some nominal fee.
I breed poodles and spend a phenomenal amount of time (And money!) investing in my puppies to ensure they get the best outcomes. My time is valuable, I have a lot of experience and expertise and that is what you are paying for when you buy a puppy from me. It’s an investment in your puppy’s future that they have an excellent upbringing.

I also don’t really understand dog snobbery either, a cross is a cross. No big deal - if you prefer a purebred buy that! A dog shouldn’t need less energy, time, money in its upbringing because it’s a cross so unless you’re paying more to have a prestigious kennel club registered dog to show from I can’t really see how it matters to the average owner!

So it’s still greed then and nothing to do with welfare.

If the decent breeders cared about the welfare of the puppies they would keep their prices lower in order to encourage people to buy from them rather than from the unscrupulous breeders.

Breeding 2 pedigrees leads to a crossbreed not a mongrel. A mongrel is a complete mixture of whatever.
Anyway, mixing genes is healthy, more healthy than the KC Breeding to gain x characteristics and often resulting in abnormalities due to breeding if close family members

The problem comes when people buy the puppies and get bored ...the type that don't really think long term and then dump or attempt to offload when bored, or x y z happens.... the poor dog often then has problems...poor socialisation, not trained etc.... those dog owners are bloody annoying....but it's never their fault they didn't think ahead, or consider a dog is for LIFE

So you haven’t increased your prices during lockdown then?

In fact most reputable breeders haven’t even bred during lockdown....